The invention relates to wheelchairs and more specifically to structure which allows the backrest portion to reciprocally travel in a sliding fashion along the longitudinal axis to the back assembly. This allows a reduction or elimination of the shear produced on the wheelchair patient's back when the back assembly is reclined.
In the past attempts have been made to eliminate the body shear forces produced on the back and buttocks of the person confined to a wheelchair when they recline the back assembly. Most of these attempts require exotic mechanisms that would coordinate travel of the back assembly with forward travel of the seat assembly. These attempts have not proven entirely satisfactory even though the price of the wheelchairs has been substantial.
It is an object of the invention to provide a novel attachment for the base frame of a wheelchair that has a back assembly that is power reclined and which also has a backrest portion subjected to sliding movement in coordination with the reclining of the back assembly.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a novel sliding backrest portion that allows the amount of reciprocal travel to be fine tuned as far as its amount of travel to fit the individual patient's need.
It is another object of the invention to provide a novel sliding backrest portion that has the headrest assembly attached thereto so that they may move as one.
It is an additional object of the invention to provide a novel back assembly having a rigid front panel for supporting the patient's back which eliminates the stretch that normally occurs with the stock fabric upholstry back panels presently being used by th wheelchair industry.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an attachment for the base frame of a standard collapsible wheelchair which gives it power operated reclining capability along with a sliding backrest portion.